Innovating Education, Outreach, and Mentorship With Organic Chemist Neil Garg

Dr. Neil Garg. Credit: Penny Jennings. “An important part of being in science is being in a community,” says Neil Garg, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor and chair of the department of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). That philosophy has led him to prioritize mentorship, diversity, and inclusion—while maintaining research excellence—as well as re-envisioning what it means to educate students and the public. Falling in Love With Chemistry Science was always a part of Dr. Garg’s childhood. He participated in science fairs as a kid but says he did it for the community and not necessarily for the love of science. “When I look back on those projects, they were always with friends—never by myself,” he says. His parents were both scientists and strongly encouraged him to go into medicine, and although he became a premed major at New York University (NYU), he ultimately chose a different path. A young Dr. Garg in the late 1980s presenting a science fair project on sound. Credit: Courtesy of Dr. Neil Garg. During his freshmen honors chemistry class, Dr. Garg questioned whether he was cut out for chemistry and even tried to drop the class, but he ultimately stayed in the course and even began doing research with professor Marc Walters, Ph.D.  He says, “For the first time I recognized that I enjoyed chemistry and that I was good enough to do it.” In later chemistry courses, he found the community he’...
Source: Biomedical Beat Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Being a Scientist Chemistry, Biochemistry and Pharmacology Profiles Training Source Type: blogs